An open-minded blog from progressives
in the Dallas/Fort Worth area working
together to inform.

Wednesday, January 30, 2008

Methodists Still Rallying to Stop Bush's Library

Thanks to Somervell County Salon for pointing us to the New York Times article regarding controversy at Southern Methodist University over plans to build Bush's library on the campus. Opponents of the project think it should be put to a vote.

The Rev. Andrew Weaver, a research psychologist in New York who said an online petition drive against the project had drawn 11,200 signatures, said about 35 percent of the delegates were “progressives” opposed to the plan. “We need to inform and recruit 16 percent of the moderate delegates to block the project,” Mr. Weaver said.

More so than the library, that pesky Freedom Institute is causing some indigestion. What could be controversial about a policy institute dedicated to "compassionate conservatism?" Well, everything, really, but apparently there are some procedural issues as well.

The nature of the policy institute stirs much of the debate. In outlining the project to prospective universities in 2005, two officers of the foundation, Marvin P. Bush, a brother of the president, and Donald J. Evans, said the institute would be answerable to the foundation, not the university. [emphasis added.]

You didn't think the unitary executive theory would end because of term limits, did you? That would be an oxymoron.

The Rev. Weaver's insistence on a vote is admirable, but it's not clear that the library can be stopped at this point.

But officials at Southern Methodist, which is owned by the [South Central Jurisdiction], say they already have the church’s approval, through the jurisdiction’s Mission Council and College of Bishops, to lease land to the George W. Bush Foundation and are close to an agreement to do so.

You were expecting a democratic process? Did you not learn anything from this administration?

Personally, I think the idea of Bush and his cronies coming home to roost makes perfect sense. It started with a little seed of corruption that just kept expanding until it took over the state of Texas, then the U.S. and finally the world. And then, starting with the Libby trial, it began to contract in on itself until it has finally turned into a big, black hole in the heart of Dallas. Just call it the big bang theory of Texas politics.